Lingam-worahip was conducted in Phoenicia (the Canaan of Scripture) in its worst aspect. According to Lucian (De Syria Dea), after the return of Bacchus, he placed the two colossal phalli, each 300 fathoms high? in the vestibule of the great Syrian temple. In the great Bacchic pomp, celebrated by Ptolemy of Alexandria, we read (Athensaus, lib. v.) of a golden phallus 120 cubits high.
The Bana-lingam or Ban-lingam, and the Chakram-lingam of India, are stones formed by attrition in a river bed into a lingam-like form ; the saligram is a fossil shell, the interior parts of which resemble a lingam. The lingam of the temples of India is almost invariably of stone of some kind, and is imbedded in the yoni, and varies from a little projecting knob to a consider able cylinder of two feet high and a foot in diameter. The figure inside the temple is often of copper or silver. The Ada-sarpa, or old serpent, in the form of a single cobra, or three, five, or nine headed cobra, is often figured bending over the lingam, with the figure of a bull Nandi, or Basava, the vahan of Siva, sitting before it.
At the Hogena Kallu, or smoke rock, where the Cauvery turns southwards on its way to the rice - fields of Tanjore, 10 or 12 huge lingam stones are arranged in a line, each in a separate cell. At Munoli, Parasgad, in the Belgaum col lectorate, are a group of temples of Pancha-linga Deva. At the present day, in the south of India, the principal Siva temples are at Conjeveram (Kanchi), at Jambuk Eswar, near Trichinopoly, Tirunamalle, Callestry (Kalahistri), and at Chad ambaram. The Saiva Hindu, however, is essen tially polytheist, worships at every temple, and reverences all Brahmans.—Cole. Myth. Hind. p. 175 ; Wilson's Gloss. ; Latham ; Lubbock's Origin of Civil. p. 236 ; Burton's Mecca, i. p. 1M ; Sonnerat's Voyage, p. 52 ; Tod's Rajasthan, i. pp. 219-514, ii. p. 658 ; Bind. Theat. ii. p. 97 ; Cat. Ex., 1862 ; C. P. Brown in Madras Lit. Soc. Journal. See Jangam.